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Your letters: Two sides of the death penalty
Self-image: Protestant Bishop I Ketut Waspada (right) displays a painting by Myuran Sukumaran, a death row convict, in front of Kerobokan prison in Bali on Tuesday
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span class="inline inline-center">Self-image: Protestant Bishop I Ketut Waspada (right) displays a painting by Myuran Sukumaran, a death row convict, in front of Kerobokan prison in Bali on Tuesday. Ketut led prayers with relatives of Sukumaran, who is awaiting execution. JP/Zul Trio Anggono
Some days ago, a reader who opined about the double standards of Indonesia in saving foreign workers in Saudi Arabia while executing drug traffickers was promptly shot down by comment posts, which stated that one may not draw parallels between an Indonesian maid defending her life against a Saudi bully and a drug dealer or trafficker trying to earn a quick buck or rupiah at the expense of the public.
These comments solidified popular thinking in Indonesia at this time; a poor Indonesian worker in a country ruled by Islamic law has a somewhat greater moral standing than a foreign drug trafficker, who is equal to a mass murderer given the local lives that are ended or ruined by his actions. Who could refuse such a sentiment?
Commentaries also proceeded to outline how the two Australians on death row at this present moment ' who are very active in pleading for mercy ' are merely actors who, should the cloud of the death penalty ever clear above them, would promptly resume their lucrative business given the opportunity.
Indeed, it seems quite abhorrent to challenge the moral distinction made between a maid guilty of (what should have been) manslaughter and people who traffic drugs across borders. It is so easy to see the human being in the first instance and equally so the demon in the other.
In the first instance, we are encouraged to look past the murderous actions and recognize the trapped human being, desperate to survive and pursuing a course of action that, however abhorrent to them, was their only hope. In the other case, we are enjoined firstly to see the effects of drugs in Indonesia ' indeed a 'drug crisis' ' and imagine the effects that the unsuccessfully trafficked heroin would have had if the Bali Nine had made it and furthermore to view this effect as tantamount to mass murder.
In the first case, the person is simply trying to earn money for her family. They pay taxes. However, in the other case, what many people fail to see in focusing upon their horrible actions is their rehabilitation. Such transformations of character are rare; however ' as the inmates and workers inside Kerobokan Prison can attest ' they have happened.
People who ignore this ignore the possibility of a change of character whilst also supporting the idea that a human action, once performed, is irrecoverable under the light of morality.
Lastly, I commend the writer I mentioned at the beginning for recognizing a very well hidden ' yet nonetheless visible ' double standard. The value of human life cannot be essentialized to one moment without consideration to its context.
Furthermore, to recognize the complexities surrounding one immoral act and to discount those of the other is a part of that singular brand of hypocrisy that endangers this country's progress.
Lucas Millar
Jakarta
